"Four men are now in Israels
sights. Two  Yasser Arafat and Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik
Tirawi  are under siege in Ramallah.

The other two  Fatah-Tanzim militia chief Marwan Barghouti and Rashid
Abu Shbak, deputy to Gaza preventative security chief Mohammed Dahlan 
are running for their lives with Israeli intelligence services on their heels.
These manhunts take time. Palestinian bombmaker Yahya Ayyash was not caught
in a day, while the worlds most wanted fugitive, al Qaedas Osama
bin Laden, and his senior lieutenant, the notorious Imad Mughniyeh, continue
to elude the most intensive pursuits.

A senior Israeli security source, asking to remain anonymous, told the Washington
Post that Israels biggest mistake in the past 18 months of the Intifada
was to show too much respect for the Palestinian Authoritys top executives.
They were awarded VIP passes, weapons, their entrée to the White House,
money, territory, an airport, a seaport, health services and jobs.

Israel was repaid with lynching, explosives belts and a widening culture of
suicide bombings.

Back in October 2000, DEBKAfile was
the first to carry the transcript of a telephone conversation between Arafat
and Barghouti, in which the Palestinian leader told the militia chief, 'Kill
 kill as many Jews as you can.'

Several days later, DEBKAfilerevealed that Tirawi, the intelligence chief,
had taken charge of the terror offensive on the Modiin-Jerusalem highway,
and that he and Barghouti had split up the terror orbit between them 
the Ramallah-Jerusalem highway for Barghouti; the Modiin-Jerusalem Route
443 for Tirawi.

Dahlan is the equal of any of the other four terror chiefs. DEBKAfilewas again
the first publication to take a close look at the Gaza security chiefs
exploits in the long months of the Palestinian confrontation. An innovator,
with a good scientific brain  if terrorism can be termed a science 
it was Dahlan who first applied cellular telephones to triggering car bombs
and explosive devices. He created the Palestinian military industries,
that manufacture mortars and rockets. Most recently, Dahlan orchestrated the
bomb-blasts that destroyed two Merkava-3 tanks.
Arafat also entrusted him with welcoming Hizbollah arrivals in the Gaza Strip.

In more than half the world, meanwhile, Israeli is being condemned for its
operation to purge terror. UN secretary general Kofi Annan and leaders in
Europe, China and Japan, backed by vocal media, demand an immediate halt to
Israels counter-terror offensive. On the other hand, the US leaders
-- President George W. Bush, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and secretary
of state Colin Powell  sing a different tune. They are quietly supported
by German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian president Vladimir Putin and
British prime minister Tony Blair, who thus indirectly sanction the Israel
action.

Arguments heard from opposition groups in Israel, contending that the Sharon
government is taking on the whole world by continuing its offensive, are treated
by the Israeli majority as self-serving rather than representing the true
situation. Some Israeli media, for example, distorted US secretary of state
Colin Powells latest message. He was represented as voicing a strong
opinion against Arafats removal. All he said in fact, was that the Palestinian
leader must not be forcibly deported. If Arafat chose to leave voluntarily,
it would be perfectly acceptable to Washington.
One of his comments struck a note of hostility to the Palestinian leader:
If Arafat moves somewhere else, he warned sternly, he will keep on doing there
what he has been doing here. The implication was that those doings would not
become more salutary if transplanted. Clearly, the US secretary of state is
under no illusion about Arafat continuing his war of terror against Israel
and the Jewish people wherever he goes.

To make sure the war situation does not zoom out of control, Washington has
posted two very senior officers in the Israel-Palestinian arena: CIA chief
George Tenet has been shuttling between Israel and other Middle East capitals,
while former Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni remains in place even after
he failed to secure a ceasefire.

Furthermore, DEBKAfile reports that
members of American special forces units have
been spotted in undercover action for the first time. Sporting US special
forces combat gear and weapons, they were seen moving against suspected terrorists
during the battle around the monasteries and churches of Bethlehem on Wednesday,
April 2.
When the moment came to extricate US and European citizens  some held
hostage by Palestinian militants - US armored cars drove up through the streets
of Bethlehem and well-armed American security men came to pick
them up. Israel tanks, helicopters and drones provided cover for the five-hour
operation to rescue all the foreign civilians stranded or held hostage in
Bethlehem.

That was not their primary mission.
DEBKAfiles military sources report that the US commando contingent is
present for an undercover assignment that could determine the outcome of the
entire Israeli military operation to root out the terrorist menace. Even Barghouti,
Tirawi and Abu Shbak are secondary targets, belonging to the past. A new threat
is posed by the foreign crack force Arafat has
been able to smuggle into the country from Lebanon. It is made up of highly-trained
fighters  Palestinian, Hizballah and al Qaeda. This group has been designated
the special target of the US contingent.

This seek-and- destroy mission is underway in deep secrecy. But when it is
over, Arafats latest threat will be exposed as having posed one of the
most decisive confrontations of the global war against terror. US and Israeli
commandos are now focusing all their strength on the effort to catch the infiltrators
before they can do their worst.
President Bush, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, Arafat and Middle Eastern
leaders have all suspended their next moves pending the outcome of this clash.
Bush, Powell and Rumsfeld are defending the combined operation against critics
the world over  some inside Israel too  so as to give Sharon and
the US contingent the time it needs to complete its mission." [Emphasis
added]